President

The President is an Spanish card game, very popular at the moment among university students. It is also known in Spanish as comemierda (something like shiteater), the name given the the player who ends in the last place.

It is a recently invented game, probably in some university campus.

Description

Usually it is used a 40 cards pack; if the number of players is very high, two packs may be used.

The Spanish pack has 40 or 48 cards distributed in four suits: oros (golden coins), copas (glasses), espadas (swords) and bastos (sticks); the picture cards are sota (jack,10), caballo (horse,11), and rey (king,12). Most games are played with the 40 cards pack (pictures and cards from ace to seven), but some of them need also eights and nines.

It may be played for any number of players, from 2 to 10

In Ludoteka 4, 6 or 6 players can take part in the game. If the game is opened for 6 players, a 48 card pack is used.

This is the value of the cards, from highest to lowest:

2 of golds

The other Twos

Aces

Kings

Knights

Kings

Sotas

Sevens

Sixes

Fives

Fours

Threes

Objective

There are four posts assigned to the players according to the order they have discarded in the last hand: president, vice-president, vice-comemierda and comemierda.

The aim is to achieve and hold the hisghest possible post. The first player who discards will be the president, the second vice-president, the last but one is the vice-comemierda, and the last will be the comemierda.

The goal in Ludoteka is to reach the highest possible score during the whole game.

How the game goes on

Start of the game and each of the hands

All the cards of the deck are dealed among the players. The first hand is opened by the player who receives the three of golds. Subsequent hands are started by the comemierda (the player who has not discarded in the previous hand).

After the dealing, the president and the comemierda exchange two cards: the president may give the cards he wants, but the comemierda must give to the president his two best cards. The vice-president and the vice-comemierda also exchange one card.

Sucessive tricks are played while at least two players remain with cards in their hands. The comemierda starts the first trick. Subsequent tricks are started by the player who has thrown the last card; if that player is already discarded, it is started by the next player on the right.

Playing the cards

The player who starts the trick must throw to the center of the table one, two, three or four cards of the same value.

The other players, from left to right, have two options: pass, or throw the same amount of cards of an higher value.

Exceptionally, the 2 of golds may be used at any moment, even if the number of cards thrown in the trick is more than one.

End of the dealing

The trick ends when all the players pass ant the turn returns to the player who threw the last card. The same player will start the next trick.

The hand finishes when one only player ramain without discarding.

Games played in Luddoteka are scored according to the following amount of points, given to each player at the end of the hands:

When the number of players is 5 or 6, those who stand in the intermediate positions get 1 point.

The scores got in every deal are multiplied by an increasing factor that changes after 3 deals: the first 3 deals muttiply by 1, from the fourth to the sixth by 2, form the seventh to the nineth by 3, and so on.

End of the game

The game continues until one of the players reach the goal score, or just may be played to a fixed number of hands.

If there is a draw in the first position, another additional hand is played.